Orlando Pace is on his way to Chicago. He signed a three-year, $15 million contract to play for Lovie Smith and the Bears last night. This should turn out to be a very good move, and certainly a needed one, for Chicago, who have to replace both of their starting tackles from last season. (As if truth being stranger than fiction needs to be proved, Pace will replace... John St. Clair.) In signing Pace, they've gotten a high-caliber individual and a Hall-of-Fame-quality tackle who I feel still has plenty of game left in him.
That obviously wasn't the only news the Bears made yesterday, as they radically transformed their offense by acquiring Jay Cutler from the Broncos for Kyle Orton and a ton of draft picks, including this and next year's first-rounders. Getting Cutler and Pace the same day... pretty big step upward offensively for Chicago. The caveat (besides Cutler's mopiness) is that the Bears have NOTHING like the corps of young receivers Cutler had to throw to in Denver. They need a big move there to make this trade pay off quickly, and that's going to be hard to do when your draft day starts at pick #49.
For their part, the Broncos have turned their first- and third-round picks in 2006 (and a 5th-rounder this year) into Orton, first-rounders this year AND NEXT year, and a third-rounder this year. They've basically turned the #11 pick that year into a starting NFL QB in Orton and an additional first round pick.
Certainly worth noting that the end result of the Rams trading that very #11 pick to Denver in 2006 was that they turned it into... Tye Hill and Claude Wroten (left, practicing for future mug shots).
And that's why we have a whole new front office now at Rams Park.
(Tasteless ads courtesy of picapp.com while I evaluate their value as a blog picture source)
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